MOBRIDGE, S.D. - Celebrating beauty and the nobility of the human spirit, Kevin Locke's Lakota love songs transcend the boundaries of time and dimensions.

Locke, Hunkpapa Sioux, first heard the love poems from his uncle Abraham End of Horn and other Lakota elders at home on Standing Rock Sioux tribal land. When he was a young man, Locke dusted off a cedar flute in his mother's home and began to sound out the old songs.

Those sounds, Locke said, are the essence of the wind brought by the meadowlarks returning to the Northern Plains. "The flute gives voice to the beauty of the land and is the sound of the wind as it rustles the grasses and leaves, scales the buttes and m ountains and skims the surface of the lakes and streams."

Since learning the traditional love poems, the flutist and hoop dancer has released 12 solos and traveled to 71 countries. In Indigenous communities, he has blended native sounds with Lakota melodies, including the Australian aborigines' wind instrument, the didigeridoo. "People all over want to connect with this," said Locke, whose travels have taken him to Siberia, the South Pacific, Americas and Africa.

Locke's music is now on the compact disc, "Here at Black, Mesa, Arizona," which soared to the number five spot on the World Music Chart Europe in December. The disc by the group Lunar Drive climbed up from the number eight position in November. Soon to be released in the United States, the native music mix with a dance beat sold out in Germany during December when it topped pop charts.

Composer Sandy Hoover brought the sounds of Navajos Sam Minkler, Jon Benally and Rey Cantil together with those of Locke and Phil Lane, Swan Lake band of the Lakota Sioux in Canada.

Minkler remembered the songs of his grandparents at Black Mesa, Az. on the Navajo Nation. The photography instructor at Northern Arizona University said that as a child, Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school teachers attempted to rob him of his language. Today it is the Navajo language and the songs of his grandfather that are taking him around the world.

The Hozhoni, Navajo Beautyway, was the way of his childhood. He rode in his grandfather's wagon, ate melted snow, planted corn, slept beneath the stars and lived with the livestock in the Navajo communities of Tonalea and Black Mesa, Az.

"What a great experience. It was rich and that is what people seek. We lived in hogans and under trees and in tents. We weren't raised in HUD housing. We were raised around a fire," Minkler said.

Minkler, preparing to tour with Lunar Drive in New Zealand and Australia, said the music is a blend of traditional and contemporary. "I hope it is a renaissance in thought."

Hoover divides her time between London and Flagstaff, Ariz. She was introduced to Navajo and Apache songs and ceremonies while living on Southern Ute tribal land in Colorado. "Like all good music, it has great melodies and good beats and is emotionally expressive," Hoover said.

While producing dance music in London, Hoover began to experiment with Navajo melodies. During visits to Big Mountain, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, Benally's voice inspired the first song for the release. "Jon can really express that human feeling of desperation versus hope," Hoover said.

After being hit by a car in London, she returned to Flagstaff to recuperate. While living with her mother on Lunar Drive, she met Minkler, a neighbor.

"Sam knows lots of traditional songs from his family and he is also a natural composer and improviser. I would put together some beats and then he improvised new melodies over them. Or he would sing songs and I would try to build other music around his songs."

Hoover and Minkler performed in London last summer and young people were soon humming Navajo and Lakota melodies. The music mix, released by Nation Records in England, was described by "The Guardian"as black top techno, Pueblo trance and high desert trip-hop.

"Sampling Native American songs and chants into a prefab dance beat would have been one thing, but to have the various elements rippling into and around each other like this is really special," "The Guardian" wrote in a recent review.

"Here at Black Mesa, Arizona," has been broadcast in Latin America on the BBC World Service, in England on BBC regional stations and on local radio stations in Portugal and Germany.

Preparing for an upcoming tour of the South Pacific, Locke said folk art is a tried and true means to express what is in one's heart. At the core of one's being is the universal language of the spirit. "This is the basis which connects all people." Loc ke said he seeks to infuse his music with the teachings of Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith. The Baha'i Faith teaches the oneness of religion and mankind. Baha'u'llah taught the arts are a gift from the Creator.

Music can take people to an entirely different level of consciousness and transcend prejudices and divisiveness, he said. "As a Baha'i, my goal is to celebrate the nobility of the human spirit through music and dance."